Hey Everyone,

Just a quick update. I am finally on the farm property in Vryheid, Natal. Things are going well but my throat is trying to get sore… blah!
I wanted everyone to know that the internet is available out here but is definitely limited during normal hours. From midnight till 6am it is free and unlimited. So I will have to try to figure out how to post & upload everything then.

The most important thing is that I want everyone to understand that I already have several stories typed and lots of photos and pictures to go with them. So please have faith and be patient, I am doing the best I can with what I have and there will be plenty more to come. The stories will be slightly old but they will still be posted in chronological order. I would put them all up right now but it would use too much data for the daily allowance of the satellite internet.

Thanks and I hope you all enjoy what is to come.

Oh, interesting side note. We were driving on a highway yesterday coming home from Limpopo and there was a decent sized Black Mamba crossing the road (about 7 feet). It was quite a site and I sure hope to never see one of those out in the bush! Stone cold dead in 20 minutes or less… Ouch!

And as exciting as this all is it is still a bit lonely as I thought it would be. So as always comments and emails are always appreciated and nice to read when I have some down time =)

Take care everyone!

-The Jonny

Getting everything moved into storage was an enormous undertaking and I couldn’t have done it without my family’s help. It’s amazing how much “crap” one has but you never realize this until you have to organize and pack it all piece by piece. And being that I had many heavier boxes & items it was going to be pretty tough to just rely on the free pickup truck usage that came with my storage unit.

My mom said we needed a Uhaul rental truck because it has a nice ramp you can pull out and walk the boxes up instead of having to jump up into the back of a pickup truck every time. I thought about it for a few seconds and realized she was right. So we called up the local rental location which was a small one, they only had about 3 trucks. Out of those 3 trucks one of them was the small size that I was interested in.
We pulled up and went inside and did the paperwork, afterwards he walked us out and pointed out which one was ours. “That’s the one, right over there.” He said. My jaw nearly dropped off my face and shattered on the ground. Take a look for yourself and see what was on the truck.

Now I don’t care if you are religious, agnostic, superstitious, only believe in fortune cookies or what, but I think it is impossible for anyone to deny that at the very least, this was a incredible coincidence. These trucks have hundreds of different designs on them and for this truck to be the size I wanted at my local location… Well I can’t believe this is anything short of an absolute sign this is meant to be. I knew all along in my gut that I was supposed to go to Africa, and this was just one great big confirmation for me. I’ll take this over a crusty fortune cookie any day!

Cheers!

-The Jonny

Jumping right in there…

My friend Clyde, who just so happens to be an awesome guy secured my rifle Friday morning (May 3rd, 2013). I was so excited to hear from him because I knew what a phone call from him most likely meant… IT came in. My lifeline. Sure enough after a few pleasantries, in my excitement I asked “So how does it look? Does it look ok?” Clyde responded, “Ya, it’s a fine looking gun… but I didn’t know you ordered a pink stock on it?”

I cringed and doubled over for about 1 second… then I realized, he’s a pretty humorous fella and was just messing with me (of course he was, which manufacturer produces dangerous game safari rifles with a pink stock? DUH! Hahaha!). I was just too high strung. And so I laughed it off about one second later, absolutely cracked me up. I was so happy to hear my bread and butter FINALLY came in, and that I was going to have it for my trip after all. Many thanks Clyde! And also many many thanks to Jason Morton and Kipp Oertle at CZ in Kansas City! You guys totally delivered even on such short notice and I am extremely grateful.

So here we were today, I went out with my Great Uncle, Dad and friends to the range as usual and shot some skeet. I did three rounds and scored 22, 23(doubles) and the last a straight. What a way to end it! I was so happy because my dad doesn’t come out too often and so he finally got to see me shoot a straight this morning.

Then we went down to the rifle range to test out my new loads with my new CZ 550 Safari Magnum American in 458 Lott and a kevlar synthetic stock. With a load of 82 grains of Benchmark (thank you Tom ol’ buddy), a 450 grain Barnes TSX bullet, Hornady brass and a Winchester Large Rifle Magnum primer we had great results. Average FPS was about 2400. Accuracy was good, (target was set at 30 yards) but I think I could use a little more practice with the gun to get my point of impact where I want it (My shots tended to go to the left a few inches). All in all for seven shots, I think it and I did just fine for open sights and free standing/using shooting sticks. I sure wouldn’t want to be a Cape Buffalo down-range, lets put it that way ::winks::

Also, thank you to my good buddy George for the photos below:

And please check out the HD video below as well (thanks Dad for filming!):

Some people say it kicks like a mule, and I say the power behind that kick is pure confidence for my being. For the time may come that I need that powerful stopper more than anything…

Cheers!

-The Jonny

Ok so I went to Verizon today and got some shifty and super shady Indian guy to “help” me. (Nothing against Indian fellows, truly this guy was shady I tell you!!!) Anyways, I could never get a straight answer out of him when it came to charges and fees, he kept changing his story and switching things up on me. Hell I practically had to beat the answers outta the guy! He wouldn’t even print me out or give me a sheet that gave me the plans details on it, or a breakdown of charges/fees. Finally after I continued to be persistent with my detail oriented questions I found out what I would ACTUALLY be paying. Well lemme tell you, it aint peanuts, and I aint no pachyderm.

Long story short, I’m not getting a mobile hotspot device/satellite card here in America. I’m looking into options over there and as a last resort I’m really hoping my PH has some decent connection I can leech off of .

If there’s one thing preparing for this whole trip has taught me, it’s to take a step back, take a deep breath and flooooooow with it. *siiigh*

-The Jonny